"Looking to Mötley Crüe for advice about business might sound a little like asking Warren Buffett for tips on headbanging. Are there really lessons to be learned from the band who, in their 1980s heyday, were as well known for their over-the-top debauchery as for their music? “Looking from the outside,” says bassist and co-founder Nikki Sixx, “I totally understand why people would think there’s no way this band should even still be here.”
Not only is Mötley Crüe still around, they have continued to thrive even as the music industry has contracted around them and other metal bands they came up with have either become nostalgia acts or simply disappeared. Since their founding in 1981, the band--singer Vince Neil, guitarist Mick Mars, drummer Tommy Lee, and Sixx--has sold more than 75 million records, cranking out hits like “Girls, Girls, Girls,” “Kickstart My Heart,” and “Home Sweet Home” despite weathering drug and alcohol addiction, internal strife, arrests, and imprisonment. As the group prepares to wrap up its legendary career with a final worldwide tour before disbanding for good, Sixx and the band’s longtime manager, Allen Kovac, spoke to Fast Company about the business smarts that have kept Crüe cruising for more than 30 years." - Fast Company